Will the Real iPod Video Please Stand Up?

File this under “PSP/UMD killer.” Thinksecret.com is reporting that Apple has plans to release a true video iPod featuring a 3.5 inch diagonal display as early as April. Getting rid of the now classic click wheel for a touch screen with a disappearing/reappearing “digital” wheel, sources indicate that the 6G iPod will not feature wireless connectivity nor make your credit card debt any less severe.

This wouldn’t be too far fetched from a business perspective. A lot of the expense in selling the iPod comes from marketing and sales. If Palm had the hardware and OS already developed, then buying Palm for the LifeDrive would be a move that would reduce risk.

I had been thinking of the Apple buys Palm argument only in terms of Apple’s rumored entry into the mobile phone space. But maybe Apple’s thinking about a Palm acquisition as being a way to acquire technology for the “Mobile Me” as well as the “5th Generation iPod.”

At the time I’m writing this, PALM has a market cap of just shy of $1,900 Million (or $1.9 Billion as the Yanks would say.) AAPL’s market cap of $57,120 Million (or $57.12 Billion in US terms) provides them with more than enough “value” to make a cash and stock offer that would be, on the face of it, acceptable by both firms. Were I to speculate, I would think the deal would be $580 Million in cash plus 22,230,000 in AAPL shares.

For the Palm product line, this would be good. Their LifeDrive product, which would benefit greatly from Apple’s ability to purchase small-footprint, high-capacity hard drives, would be sold through Apple’s successful retail and wholesale channels. For AAPL it would also be good, they could free up their iPod engineers to focus on further mobile communicator products (maybe we could even rebrand the Treo, the Newton 2 😉 )

From a development perspective it’s not that daft an idea. Even if Apple had no plans of turning the LifeDrive into a full featured PalmOS (or WindowsCE.. or Linux..) based PDA, the ability to use “off the shelf” development tools should, in theory, help contain development costs.

Napoleon Gwyndolin Bach

Who wants to have a video player with touch screen controls (which will almost certainly be part of the main display)?

I mean, you’d have to wipe the damn screen after every volume adjustment or pause or resume or play or stop or…

OhGizmo! is a frequently updated blog that focuses on covering items that will appeal to a very specific and often very passionate audience: the geek. Aside from the fare of innovative consumer electronic products, the reader can expect to find news about geek culture, absurd inventions, awe inspiring technology, and an ever growing assortment of articles that we like to think fit within our view of what we’re calling the Geek Lifestyle.